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What if I asked you to design an environmentally
sustainable carpet tile for today's market? Same
cost as standard carpet tiles. Same performance.
Same variety of choices for the customer. You'd
have to start with an open mind, a willingness
to discard traditional ideas of materials and
processes, and even the courage to change your
company's culture.
This is where we began at Shaw Contract a few
years ago. Let me tell you where we've come from
there, and a little about how we've done it.
Starting with Materials
We decided that to be truly sustainable, we needed
to use materials designed to be recycled, and
that meant starting with materials that are safe,
light weight and can be recycled at a very high
level of quality. We had an intuitive sense of
the best material for the job, but I'd recommend
you start with the MBDC Protocol as a design tool.
At Shaw, we actually built the product, then used
the Protocol to measure our success. We were lucky
or good, or some of both, because the Protocol
confirmed our intuition.
We were already using EcoSolution Q, nylon 6,
with the ability to be recycled back into virgin
quality fiber again and again. The materials used
for carpet tile backings presented a greater challenge.
Looking at the standard options in the industry,
we eliminated polyurethane cushion and other thermoset
polymers from consideration, because they can't
be recycled by remelting the material. We didn't
use PVC because many stakeholders were asking
for an alternative, because some competitor patents
restricted design options, and because its use
in carpet backing impairs the recycling process
of the nylon 6 fiber.
So we looked at polyolefins, the largest category
of plastics used worldwide. A recently developed
catalyst for making polyolefins now meant that
they could meet all the performance and flexibility
requirements for carpet tile backing. And, by
chance, Shaw had recently purchased the Amoco
Fibers and Fabrics Extrusion facilities for polypropylene
(a polyolefin) with 300 million pounds of fiber
extrusion capacity. We thought we might be able
to use these polypropylene assets for more than
yarn production.
It was time to sell an idea.
Getting to Work
Instead of starting with a low volume pilot production
line, we decided to think bigger. We proposed
to build an extrusion station in Shaw's new carpet
tile facility with commercial production capacity,
capable of producing 24-inch carpet tiles that
could be installed and evaluated under actual
conditions of use and recovery.
We found a senior management sponsor willing
to listen, and after an hour of presenting nothing
more than the possibility of success we had the
$600,000 we needed.
We spent our funds wisely and were able to build
the production line as well as a small pilot line.
This allowed us to test compounds on the pilot
line then move to full tile production if the
compound showed promise. This approach saved considerable
time in development. The only thing that would
give us greater speed and latitude in development
would be to invest in a twin-screw compounding
unit with the necessary options to allow us to
refine compounds overnight rather than requiring
two or more weeks.
So we asked our sponsor for an additional $400,000
to purchase and install the unit and make some
necessary changes to the existing production line.
This time we had actual carpet tile with polyolefin
backing to show as we sold a broader version of
our original idea.
There was no promise of success. But we got the
money and the equipment because Shaw management
realizes that no success comes without risk.
We had one million dollars invested in a project
that had not yet sold a single square yard of
carpet tile. We were still doing test installations
only. The equipment sat in the back of the most
modern PVC carpet tile plant in the industry,
with a reputation for making the most dimensionally
stable carpet tile available. We were pursuing
a polymer backing system that could possibly change
a plant where nothing was broken. And marketing
pressure had not yet convinced many that our attempts
would lead to anything beyond possible extrusion
processes applicable to PVC carpet tile production.
To the credit of Shaw management throughout the
organization, we were tolerated, often encouraged,
and left to our own devices to prove that we could
produce a return on one million dollars of capital.
Success
We hit snags in development and found ways to
go forward. We had successes as we worked through
every problem or objection that came our way.
Marketing began to take more interest because
of competitors that were talking about a sustainable
carpet tile in the future. The carpet tile business
was growing at a double-digit rate. And instead
of jumping into a marketing landscape that looked
increasingly like a quagmire of "greenwash," we
were quietly working to achieve a cradle-to-cradle
product.
Then it happened. We developed a polyolefin backed
carpet tile that would do everything expected
of a PVC tile and more. We called it EcoWorx.
It was 40% lighter in total product weight than
conventional PVC emulsion coated tiles. It was
1999, and Neocon, the largest annual interior
furnishings and systems show in the US, was to
open in mid June. Our tile segment manager made
a bold decision. He put EcoWorx on a collection
of tiles as a standard backing, and publicly stated
that EcoWorx would be standard on all new tile
introductions henceforth.
Those decisions had two results. EcoWorx won
the 1999 Best of Neocon Gold Award for InnovativeTechnology.
And, supported by a growing number of internal
managers that "always knew" EcoWorx would be a
winner, senior management approved a capital investment
of $5 million to support a growth rate goal of
50% of our tile backing business within 5 to 6
years.
Within 36 months EcoWorx production passed that
goal of 50% of Shaw's total tile backing, and
shows no signs of slowing.
The only thing that could slow EcoWorx growth
is our lack of production capacity. And that won't
happen. The capital project and blueprints are
already well on their way to approval. An exit
from PVC for Shaw Industries could be in our future,
but the marketplace will make that decision.
In 2002 Shaw's "Dressed To Kill" line of carpet
tile won the Best of Neocon Gold Award for carpet
tile design. That win was a confirmation of our
original frame conditions: same cost as standard
carpet tiles, same performance, and industry-leading
design and color for the customer.
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Environmental sustainability is our
destination and cradle-to-cradle is
our path. Our entire corporation and
all stakeholders will value and share
this vision.
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| Through eco-effective
technology we will continuously redesign
our products, our processes, and our
corporation. |
| We will take responsibility
for all that we do and strive to return
our products to technical nutrient cycles
that virtually eliminate the concept
of waste. |
| We will plan for generations,
while accepting the urgency of the present.
We are committed to the communities
where we live and work. Our resources,
health, and diversity will not be compromised.
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| We look forward to a solar-powered
future utilizing the current solar income
of the earth, anticipating declining
solar costs and rising fossil fuel costs
as technology and resource depletion
accelerate. |
| We will lead our industry
in developing and delivering profitable
cradle-to-cradle solutions to our free-market
economy. Economy, equity, and ecology
will be continually optimized. |
| Honesty, integrity, and
hard work remain our core values. We
will continue to deliver unsurpassed
safety, quality, beauty, performance,
and value to our customers. |
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Taking the Next Step
And this year at Neocon Shaw Tile, in collaboration
with William McDonough, will be introducing an
unprecedented offering in support of cradle-to-cradle
thinking for the commercial carpet industry—A
Walk in the Garden: The William McDonough Design
Portfolio. This new line of carpet tiles,
which will be released in the fall of this year,
offers patterns inspired by photographs McDonough
took on a trip to China, subtle and organic patterns
with a distinctive textural quality and natural
and vivid colors.
The materials used in the Portfolio are being
optimized for cradle-to-cradle health and safety,
down to its chemical building blocks, with MBDC.
This is an extensive process that involves the
cooperation of chemical and material suppliers,
as well as taking a hard look at Shaw's operations.
Using its design protocol, MBDC inventories all
chemical inputs into the carpet's materials and
manufacturing processes, and evaluates their human
and ecological health characteristics. As chemicals
and materials are evaluated, the ingredients used
to make the carpet are optimized to make the final
product healthy and safe, as well as perpetually
recyclable-cradle-to-cradle.
Now Shaw is turning the same cradle-to-cradle
objectives into an environmental roadmap for the
corporation moving forward. Our new environmental
policy statement, approved and signed by CEO and
Chairman, R.E. Shaw, makes this clear.
Getting here hasn't been a walk in the park,
as it were. But this "walk in the garden" with
William McDonough and MBDC will show that cradle-to-cradle
solutions are possible and profitable. We're counting
on it, and designers and specifiers are counting
on us.
Steve Bradfield is Vice President of Environmental
Development, Shaw Commercial Division. He has
worked for nearly twenty years in the commercial
carpet industry with experience in sales, marketing,
and technical and environmental development. Steve
has been with Shaw Industries since 1991 in both
international and US positions and is currently
VP of Environmental Development. He leads Shaw
in developing customer-oriented cradle-to-cradle
solutions to environmental concerns. He is a active
with the USGBC, the CARE Executive Committee,
TFM Green Advisory Board, and the CRI Environmental
Claims Committee. He is a graduate of Montana
State University at Bozeman and considers himself
an adventurous seeker of change. Early experiences
as an archeological dig volunteer, a deckhand
on a tugboat on the Mississippi River, a roustabout
on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico,
a cowboy on a Wyoming Ranch, and three years in
strip mining coal in Southern Montana, have given
him a unique perspective on environmental responsibilities
and a deep appreciation for the environment.
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